Distributed processing technology via wireless communication between terminals is conventionally used. For example, terminals such as mobile telephones are battery-driven systems and consequently, if the battery becomes exhausted while distributed processing via wireless communication is under execution, the processing cannot be continued. Thus, technology is known that based on the remaining battery level of each terminal, determines the terminals to which processes are to be assigned (e.g., refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 2005-141669 and 2006-246202). For example, control is performed such that a terminal having a battery level that is less than or equal to a threshold is not assigned a process.
Nonetheless, with the conventional technologies, since the determination of the remaining battery level is performed only at the time of process assignment, even if the remaining battery level only slightly exceeds the threshold, a process is assigned based on the load of the terminal. In other words, a terminal having a central processing unit (CPU) of a high computing capacity is assigned a significant portion of the processes. Consequently, the problems of high power consumption and rapid depletion of the battery power arise.
During distributed processing, if the terminals execute tasks unrelated to the distributed processing, the battery may become exhausted consequent to the execution of the tasks and thus, completion of the task assigned for the distributed processing cannot be guaranteed.